July 5th, 2011 :: text by geekodeen

:: Haiti 2.0 Day Eight ::

LES CAYES, HAITI — This is Haiti.

We think.

There are chicken coops. Pink pigs. And spotted cows.

A group of Global Family Philanthropy volunteers visited a convent today. And it seemed more Narnia than Haiti.

The convent has been around for decades and has been self-sustaining for years, something we hope the GFP land can become.

The convent’s land was beautiful. It has a school, with grades from kindergarten to elementary to junior high. It had a chapel, of course. The nun’s quarters and activities center, which included a center for women in the community.

It had at least three big chicken coops that held hundreds of chicken hens. It didn’t smell great but it was impressive. The convent’s chickens produce about 300 eggs a day, which the nuns use to cook for themselves, their students, teachers and the rest of the workers. The rest they are able to sell.

The nuns also grow vegetables and fruits. They have what looked to be a brand new, modern tractor that you would find on any American farm. They have at least 20 cows — the first black-and-white spotted cows we’ve seen in Haiti — and a milking station.

They have pig pens, one which was full of piglets and their mother, who we didn’t notice until someone pointed it out. It was the biggest pig we’ve ever seen. It was so big it made us NOT want to eat bacon. And that’s something to behold.

We could have stayed there all day and tour the entire complex but this was one of our last days in Haiti and we wanted to get back to the GFP kids, who we haven’t seen all day.

So we bypassed touring the rice project complex built and run by the Taiwanese government and any other potential stop.

Some of the volunteers didn’t join on the trip to the convent and were already at the GFP home and were inundated with questions from some of the kids, “Odeen? Fini? Odeen? Fini?” (Odeen, finished? Odeen, finished?)

It was a story that warmed and broke our heart. No, we are not finished here. But we will soon be.

This is Haiti.

And we will miss it so.